A man told a 911 operator and a state trooper that he shot and killed his wife and another man after they told him of their affair, Butler County prosecutors said. James Raymond Borchert, 50, of Cherry Valley, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on two counts of homicide in the Aug. 14 deaths of his wife, Esther M. Borchert, 42, and Lonnie R. Schwab Sr., 49, of Meadville. On the 911 recording played in court, the caller gives his name as James Borchert along with his address and phone number and tells the operator that the shooting happened about three minutes earlier. "My wife and her boyfriend, they decided they were going to confront me about cheating and I had to take things into my own hands," the caller says. "My life's over, I suppose, but I'm still living." When the operator says she is dispatching an ambulance, the caller says, "That's up to you. They're dead." Esther Borchert visited the defendant to demand a divorce and inform him that she and Schwab wanted him to sell the family land, District Attorney Randa Clark said. "They were going to stop my livelihood -- my life, the way I'm used to it," the caller is heard telling a state trooper. Police said they went to a farmhouse in Cherry Valley, about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, after the 12:20 p.m. call and found the two bodies. The criminal docket did not list an attorney for Borchert, who was held in Butler County Prison without bond.

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---